When you don't know what you don't know

Usually, by this time of the season, you know.

Or, at least, you have a pretty good idea how a league is going to play out.

In this case, the various high school football leagues in North Idaho.

And while that’s true to some extent, some of the leagues are still a little puzzling with league play in most North Idaho leagues beginning this week.

IN THE 5A Inland Empire League, the pecking order seems to be established — Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Lake City, Lewiston, with the Post Falls-Coeur d’Alene game looking like it will determine the league title.

The big unknown is how Lake City will do without its starting quarterback — the Timberwolves’ game at Post Falls on Friday was shaping up as an interesting one. It could come down to Lake City vs. Lewiston in two weeks for the final playoff spot.

In the 4A IEL ... yeesh. There are times when Lakeland looks like the best team. The Hawks should have beaten Lake City, and played Post Falls tough. But Sandpoint has come on strong in recent weeks. And Moscow won the league last year.

There’s no debate in the Intermountain League ... it’s Timberlake’s league to roll through. The Tigers top the statewide 3A RPI rankings this week. The only question is who will finish second, and right now it appears to be Kellogg.

In the Central Idaho League, it’s hard to tell. Grangeville has taken its lumps, but four of its six opponents thus far play in a higher classification. But St. Maries plays “up” as well. This week, St. Maries is seventh in the 2A RPI rankings, and Grangeville is 11th.

In the North Star League, most folks figured the Mullan-St. Regis co-op would earn the 1A Division II playoff berth from District 1. But Lakeside handled the Tigers-Tigers 38-6 earlier in the season, and the Knights from Plummer-Worley control their playoff fate.

NOT ONLY did wide receiver Logan Jeanselme (now a senior at Lake City) and quarterback Derek Pearse (now a senior at Post Falls) play together for three seasons in the Coeur d’Alene Junior Tackle league, they played three years on a spring arena football team. for the last two of those years, three of their teammates on those teams are now playing at Timberlake — quarterback Joey Follini, and running backs Jeremy McLemore and Louis Powell.

That arena team went a combined 15-0 when those kids were in the sixth and seventh grades.

“We even played a couple games against Seattle teams,” said Dan Pearse, Derek’s dad, who coached those Junior Tackle and arena football teams. “It was awesome. Logan caught a ton of passes from Derek on all of those teams ... even in junior tackle, we threw the ball a lot more than anyone else did.”

Another one of the receivers on that arena ball team was Tommy Madill, now playing at Mt. Spokane.

Among others on that squad, and where they are now — Connor Dremann (Lake City), Max Peed (Lakeland), Gage Benefield (Timberlake) and Justin Gies (Post Falls).

Kinda interesting to go back in the archives and see who played what with who when.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.